Boy Meets Girl (2015 TV series)

Boy Meets Girl

Three people standing in a pub; an older woman on the left, a younger women in the middle, and a man on the right

Photo released by the BBC from shooting Boy Meets Girl, showing (left-to-right) Welch, Root and Hepple
Genre Sitcom
Created by Elliott Kerrigan
Written by
  • Elliott Kerrigan
  • Simon Carlyle
  • Andrew Mettam
Directed by Paul Walker
Starring
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 2
No. of episodes 12
Production
Executive producer(s)
  • Sophie Clarke-Jervoise
  • Kristian Smith
Producer(s) Margot Gavan Duffy
Location(s) Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, UK
Running time 28 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor Endemol UK
Release
Original network BBC Two
Picture format 16:9 1080i
Audio format Stereo
Original release 3 September 2015 (2015-09-03) – 4 August 2016 (2016-08-04)
External links
Boy Meets Girl on BBC.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069hzxw

Boy Meets Girl is a BBC Two sitcom starring Rebecca Root, Harry Hepple and Denise Welch. It tells the story of the developing relationship between 26-year-old Leo (Hepple) and 40-year-old Judy (Root).[1] The script, by Elliott Kerrigan, was discovered through the Trans Comedy Award, a 2013 BBC talent search for scripts with positive portrayals of transgender characters.[2][3]

Both Root and her character Judy are transgender, making this the first BBC comedy to feature transgender issues prominently, and the first sitcom to star a transgender actor. Sophie Clarke-Jervoise, the executive producer, stated "we always knew we had to get a trans actress – I don't think we auditioned anyone who wasn't trans for the role. It just didn't feel right."[1]

The first series of six episodes aired between 3 September and 8 October 2015. A second and final series began airing from 6 July to 4 August 2016.[4] It comprises six episodes.

Background and production

In January 2012, All About Trans organized an event, "Trans Camp", involving people from the trans community and media, and aiming to help the media provide accurate depictions of transgender people.[5][6] Off the back of this, the BBC ran a talent search later that year, the Trans Comedy Award, offering comedy writers up to £5000 for scripts with positive portrayals of transgender characters.[2] The BBC received 320 script entries, with the winners being Boy Meets Girl (then titled Love) by Elliott Kerrigan and Nobody's Perfect by Tom Glover.[7][8][9]

A pilot episode was shown at the BBC's Salford Sitcom Showcase in March 2014, and the show was commissioned after that.[10][11] The main series acquired co-writers Simon Carlyle and Andrew Mettam, and had six 30-minute episodes (including the pilot episode with some re-shot scenes) set and recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne.[3][6][12]

The theme tune was "Meet Me on the Corner" by Lindisfarne.[13]

Reception

After the pilot episode aired, The Independent compared Boy Meets Girl to Gavin & Stacey, an award-winning BBC comedy from 2007–2010, a comparison the BBC had said they were looking to make.[2][10]

On the topic of having a trans woman character played by a trans woman, Paris Lees wrote in The Guardian "About bloody time" and "It's great to see trans folk bringing authenticity to roles ... [Comedy] is at its best when it helps us to understand a complex and often cruel world by laughing at our own, previously unexamined, prejudices. I haven't seen Boy Meets Girl yet, but it has already put a smile on my face."[5]

Jasper Rees in the newspaper The Telegraph was rather less impressed, describing the show as "packaged in a demoralisingly traditional form of comedy".[14] Christopher Stevens in The Daily Mail said that by the final episode, the show had "...given up all pretence at being a sitcom. It’s simply an instruction manual on what to say, think and feel about sex changes. The conversations between lovebirds Leo and Judy and their parents are excruciatingly twee. This episode centred on a father-and-son chat that was so cringeworthy, it could make a plank of wood curl up in embarrassment."[15]

People

Boy Meets Girl is created by Elliott Kerrigan and written by Kerrigan, Simon Carlyle and Andrew Mettam. It stars Rebecca Root as Judy, Harry Hepple as Leo, Denise Welch as Pam, Leo's mother, as well as Janine Duvitski, Nigel Betts, Lizzie Roper and Jonny Dixon. It is directed by Paul Walker, the producer is Margot Gavan Duffy, and the executive producers are Sophie Clarke-Jervoise for Tiger Aspect and Kristian Smith for the BBC.[16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (4 February 2015). "BBC starts filming sitcom starring transgender actor". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Sherwin, Adam (21 August 2014). "BBC2 commissions Britain's first transgender sitcom Boy Meets Girl". The Independent. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 Haigh, Josh (21 August 2014). "BBC Two commissions 'UK's first transgender sitcom'". Attitude Magazine. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "BBC confirms Boy Meets Girl series 2". Radio Times.
  5. 1 2 Lees, Paris (4 February 2015). "Boy Meets Girl: the BBC's trans sitcom is part of a quiet revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  6. 1 2 Lauder, Cathleen (7 February 2015). "Boy Meets Girl – A trans sitcom is born". KaleidoScot. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Parker, Claire (22 August 2014). "BBC Commission Boy Meets Girl, a Transgender Themed Comedy" (Press release). Trans Comedy Award. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Rowland, Kate (31 May 2013). "Winners of BBC Writersroom Trans Comedy Award announced" (Press release). BBC. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Pallas, Jamie (6 February 2015). "Boy Meets Girl: Filming starts for BBC’s first trans sitcom". All About Trans. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  10. 1 2 Richardson, Jay (18 May 2014). "From Boy Meets Girl to Orange is the New Black: Meet the new transgender faces of TV". The Independent. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Bourne, Dianne (3 February 2015). "BBC's first transgender sitcom starts filming in Manchester starring Denise Welch". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Alexander, Susannah (2 February 2015). "BBC Two's transgender sitcom Boy Meets Girl begins filming". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Parker, Claire (22 September 2015). "20th September 2015". Time 4 T (Podcast) – via PodOmatic.
  14. ↑ Rees, Jasper. "Boy Meets Girl, BBC Two, review: 'cliched'". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  15. ↑ Stevens, Christopher. "You need more than maths and a nifty title to decode modern life: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV". Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  16. ↑ Munn, Patrick (2 February 2015). "Denise Welch, Rebecca Root & Harry Hepple to Star in BBC Two's Transgender Sitcom 'Boy Meets Girl'". TVWise. Retrieved 5 May 2015.

Further reading

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